The 19th century virtuoso

Lev Ginsburg To my shame and consternation I have never played a piece of music by Vieuxtemps on my violin.

Introduction Theobald Boehm — was a goldsmith, engineer, and musician both performer and composer. He pursued and made contributions in all these fields. About twenty years laterwe find him making all-metal flutes of a very different nature.

The net effect of his work was the overthrow of the design principles of the old flute conical bore, closed-standing keys, six open holes under the fingers and the institution of new, rational and logical principles cylindrical bore with large holes in acoustically correct positions, open-standing keys, and a sophisticated mechanism.

The result was almost a new kind of instrument. There would be much resistance to it in some places and by some individuals. This revolutionary design change did not happen all at once. There were numerous experiments by Boehm and others over many years.

Boehm freely incorporated available mechanical and acoustic ideas. But only Boehm had the courage to throw out the entire old system and start over—while at the same time having the engineering know-how to produce something that actually worked.

This is a survey of types and features of 19th century Boehm flutes. Development of the Boehm flute in the 20th century is beyond the scope of this web site and will not be considered here.

Boehm made his first flute, a four-key flute, in His Munich flute workshop was established in The simple system flutes he produced then were light and agile, had small holes, and had easy and bright high notes rather like French flutes of the time had.

He wrote virtuosic music for, and performed it on, these flutes. Below is a simple flute by B.

But he, like others, was well aware of certain deficiencies of the simple system flute: It may in fact be the lack of volume that bothered Boehm most about the old flute.

He performed in London in and his sound was compared unfavorably to that of the English virtuoso Charles Nicholson —whose powerful tone was said to resemble that of the organ. In a letter dated to J. Broadwood, Boehm writes "I did as well as any continental flutist could have done, in London, inbut I could not match Nicholson in power of tone, wherefore I set to work to remodel my flute.

Had I not heard him, probably the Boehm flute would never have been made.

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This is the way to get a loud, rich, and uniform sound. It was necessary to depart from this ideal in a few instances for the sake of practicality. Click for some technical comments on the new fingering and the imperfections of the Boehm system. The conical Boehm flute Boehm introduced his new flute in after a preliminary and much simpler model was offered by the London firm of Gerock and Wolf in The correct positions and uniformity of size helped make the tone and intonation even; the larger size made the flute louder.

These ideas were known before Boehm, but no one had incorporated all of them and made a practical instrument. Miller Collection at the Library of Congress. Shown below are three conical Boehm flutes from late in the 19th century.

Cloos New York, c. The Godfroy flute shown above, made shortly afterwards, matches this illustration very well. Compare, for example, the Godfroy foot joint with the illustration.

Boehm had to design a mechanism to allow the nine available fingers to govern the fourteen tone holes. This is where his engineering expertise was invaluable.Susanna Reich is the author of Clara Schumann: Piano Virtuoso, which was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book, a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People.

Winner of ‘Hotel of the Year’ at the Virtuoso Best Of the Best Awards Known. That’s how it feels. This is a place where even your first visit feels like a homecoming, where the first glimpse stirs something familiar down in your bones. 19th Century Romantic Guitar Music. Stanley Alexandrowicz often features the virtuoso Romantic guitar repertoire in his concert programs – both in conjunction with the “music of our time” and, in recitals devoted to the Romantic Art.

in the 19th century which was an era of great changes on evolution.

Most importantly the 19th century was a time of development in fields on mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology that lay the ground work for the technological advances of the 20th century.

A virtuoso is a musician who is technically skilled on an instrument. Virtuosic musicians are known to be specialized in their instrument, perform in front of large audiences, and show off to their audiences. The Great Virtuoso Violinists/Composers of the 19th Century: Vieuxtemps April 20, April 21, / ginnyburges “Vieuxtemps’ art – expressive, human, romantic and distinctive – belongs not only to history, but to the contemporary world as well”.